Chuck Lorre has a wild, and frankly hilarious, Al Pacino story to tell in his memoir, "Sitcom," (out now from Harper Collins).
The Oscar-winning "Godfather" legend inspired Lorre's eventual hit Netflix comedy "The Kominsky Method," then nearly killed the series before the cameras ever rolled, Lorre writes.
Maybe it was accidental, maybe it was a certified Mafia hit, or maybe it was Tony Montana firing his little friend.
"Consciously or unconsciously, (Pacino) did everything he could to kill 'The Kominsky Method,'" Lorre writes.
The story, which takes up a whole mini-chapter in Lorre's dishy tome, starts with Pacino reaching out to the "Two and a Half Men" creator with an unusual
request: He wanted Lorre to build a TV comedy around him and Lorre was initially reluctant.
"To my way of thinking, Michael Corleone doesn’t do TV, let alone a sitcom," Lorre writes.
But Pacino was insistent, and Lorre was "starstruck." He relented, writing a script about a struggling actor who becomes a celebrated acting coach, which would become "The Kominsky Method."
The promising venture advanced to a star-studded table read, with comedy heavyweights Billy Crystal, Jean Smart,Allison Janney and Anna Faris joining Pacino. But what should have been a dream showcase quickly became a "slow-moving, floppy sweating" nightmare, Lorre insists.
Lorre writes that Pacino began improvising dialogue, losing his place in the script and throwing off his fellow actors. The spectacle was so bewildering that Smart, who would go on to star in HBO's "Hacks," turned to Lorre and silently mouthed, "What is happening?"
Lorre had his suspicions about what was going on, theorizing that Pacino, suddenly realizing the sitcom might actually become a reality, was having second thoughts.
The situation grew even more bizarre after the disastrous reading, when Pacino told Lorre he could only proceed with the show if he were allowed to improvise his dialogue. Lorre's written response is not printable in USA TODAY, but it had "no" in it.
That ended Pacino's involvement in the project, at least according to Lorre's account. But it wasn't the end of the show.
"The Kominsky Method" ran for three seasons and 22 episodes on Netflix from 2018 to 2021. Its first season won the Golden Globe for best television comedy series in 2019, leaving Lorre genuinely astonished.
"When they announced our name, I believe my stumbling acceptance speech began with the words, 'This doesn’t happen to me,'" Lorre writes in "Sitcom."
Pacino was not thanked in the acceptance speech. But he should have been.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Al Pacino inspired 'The Kominsky Method' – and then nearly killed the Netflix show
